Thirty Years [Citation Required]

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First of all, happy new year. It has been almost a month since my last post here, and it seems like in that time the world has become an even more fraught place than it already was. I will do my best to avoid all of that here, and concentrate solely on my little collage corner of the globe. It may seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but it does mean the world to me.

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Secure

I have had a little bit of a correction in my personal history take place over the last couple of weeks. My memory is not great at the best of times, particularly for dates, but also for names, details, and all manner of other things as well. I have friends with extraordinary memories, people who can recall specifics about places and events that took place decades earlier. That is not me. Not at all.

I do remember a lot of stuff, but it is almost like I have no control over what actually sticks. I can purposely attempt to remember things like artists, historical figures, or pivotal events, and they just disappear like tears in the rain. Even street names. I have a great sense of direction, but I cannot explain routes in the way that society at large seems to have reached a general consensus is the optimal way to go about such things. Ask me for directions and you will get landmarks, not street names.

But obscure points of trivia about 80s pop music? That stuff sticks like Tarzan’s Grip. Or dialogue from old sci-fi movies? I mean, who caught the Blade Runner quote in the last paragraph? You are my people. But as I said, I seem to have very little, or no, say over the things that get lodged in my brain like pebbles in a shoe.

So why am I banging on about all of this anyway?

I thought that last year, 2025, marked the 30th anniversary of my collage making practice. My accepted timeline of events was that the very first collage I made, Secure, was constructed in 1995. However, I recently came across some notes that state, in an unequivocal manner, that this piece was not made until 1996. If that is the case, which I now believe it is, then this year, 2026, is actually my 30th year of cutting things up and sticking them back together in the way I thought they should have been all along.

This redefinition of the sequence of events means a couple of things. Firstly, it means that I am going to need to recalibrate my internal personal compass a little bit. But hey, I have already stated that my memory is not all that reliable, so I am sure it is not difficult for you to imagine that this is not the first time something like this has happened. My internal gyroscope probably came from Temu anyway, complete with a warning that it is not guaranteed to point to true north, and that all directions provided are strictly for entertainment purposes only.

But it also means, and this is the part I am choosing to focus on, that I get to celebrate my 30th year of creating collage for another twelve months. Why not stretch the celebrations out for two whole years and milk it for all that it is worth, right? I am not really doing all that much to celebrate anyway. It just makes a good story to tell, which I guess is exactly what I am doing here.

So, with all that being said, welcome, once again, to my 30th year of making collage art. I really do appreciate everyone who has chosen to use a small part of their time to come along on this trip with me. Hopefully some of it will be entertaining, maybe some of it will be inspiring, and probably some of it will make you roll your eyes and shake your head.

Regardless, thank you for being here.

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Music recommendations, not from algorithms

Ruin – Ritual Howls
If I am being completely honest, I was a bit worried that this album was going to be a bit repetitive to listen to in full, and you know what? I was right. BUT that meant I had already got past the biggest hurdle and ended up enjoying the listening experience as a result.

Like The Sound of Injured Love – R. Missing
I suppose you would call it darkwave-tinged dream pop. I am not convinced that I am necessarily the target demographic for this album, but I guess that has never really stopped me before. And I liked it. I even had a bit of a dig through some of their other releases as well.

Trouble – Ghost Cop
I am pretty sure I have sung the praises of Ghost Cop here before. I have had this album on repeat for a while now, but I still keep coming back. Post-punk synth-pop, and really quite catchy.

Mantis – SINE
When I can, I try to avoid comparing one artist to another, even though these types of comparisons usually make it much easier to describe what the music is like. In this case I cannot avoid it, because I got all excited by how much this album reminded me of Meg Lee Chin. I really do mean that as a compliment, and a big one.

De Stijl – The White Stripes
A weird chain of events, that I will not get into, resulted in me listening to this album last night. I do not think that many people would call this their favourite White Stripes album (I just noticed that Seven Nation Army has over two billion Spotify streams), but the DNA is all there, getting ready for White Blood Cells and Elephant to follow.